Noncompete agreements don't always disappear even if an employer does

If you have a noncompete agreement with your employer, don't expect the deal to disappear if the company is involved in a merger.
HR.BLR.com reports that the Ohio Supreme Court recently ruled that noncompetes automatically transfer when a company takes part in a merger.
In the case, four insurance company employees agreed not to compete with their employer for two years after their employment terminated. The employer merged with another company, and these employees remained employed with the newly formed company, according to the website.
About four years later, though, “the employees left to work for a competitor and solicited their former clients,” HR.BLR.com reports. The employer sued, claiming the employees breached the noncompete agreements.
“In its initial ruling, the Supreme Court found in favor of the former employees, reasoning that the noncompetes expired before the employees left to work for the competitor,” according to the website.
But when reconsidering the case, the court “ruled that under Ohio law, the merged company became part of the new company and the merged entity could enforce the noncompetes as though it 'had stepped into the shoes of the absorbed company.'"

The board room is still a boy's room

About 21% new members named to the boards of companies on the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index last year were female, a decline of nine percentage points over the past five years, according to this story from Businessweek.com.
In addition, “women represent just 16 percent of all directors at companies in the index, barely above the 15 percent level of 2006,” the website reports, based on data compiled by executive recruiter Spencer Stuart.
There's a gender gap when it comes to diagnosing the roots of the problem.
“A solid 45 percent of male directors say the reason that the number of women around the table has barely budged is a lack of qualified candidates,” BusinessWeek.com reports. Only 18% of female board members agree with that sentiment, according to a survey released last month by recruiter Heidrick & Struggles, Harvard University and the WomenCorporateDirectors organization.
The numbers aren't any better with smaller companies, as the percentage of women on boards of S&P 1500 companies “barely budged from 12.1 percent in 2009 to 12.6 percent today, according to a survey released in March by GMI Ratings, a corporate governance adviser to big investors,” BusinessWeek.com reports.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it's a different story at companies where women are in charge.
The 15 S&P 500 companies led by female CEOs last year “had about 33 percent women directors vs. the 16 percent average for companies in the group led by male CEOs, Spencer Stuart says,” according to BusinessWeek.com.
“Diversity is not rocket science,” says Cari Dominguez, a director at Manpower Group and a former chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under George W. Bush. “If you look around and everyone looks like you, and it doesn't reflect broader society, you have a problem.”

Stick with what you know

Need to make a quality hire? Ask for help from the people you've already hired.
Our sister publication, Workforce, reports that one-third of recruiters say being referred by a friend or colleague sets a candidate apart, according to a survey of 1,500 global recruiters by Bullhorn, a software recruiting company.
“Recruiters across industries know that referrals generally deliver the best candidates, and now thanks to social media sites, they are cheaper and easier to find,” Workforce notes.
"Referrals are the highest-rated source of new hires," says Dan Finnigan, CEO of Jobvite Inc., a social recruiting company based in Burlingame, Calif. "If your objective is to hire the highest-quality people as quickly as possible and to spend as little as possible, referrals are the way to do it.”
But getting great referrals is not as simple as sending an email to employees and asking for suggestions.
“The best companies take advantage of social media sites to talk about the corporate culture as well as the jobs, and they make it as easy as possible for employees to share opportunities across their network,” Workforce says.
For instance, the publication says Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Inc., a West Coast grocer with 5,000 employees, sends weekly updates to its employees about new job openings. It also “actively promotes its career opportunities on Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter to make sure employees and their followers are aware of the latest openings.”
All postings link back to the company's career page. There also is a link to Fresh & Easy's YouTube career channel.
You also can follow me on Twitter for more news about business and Northeast Ohio.

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